Ukraine, Russia Exploit Dating and Social Media Apps to Extract Military Intel

In the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, both sides have increasingly turned to cyber warfare and online espionage, utilizing dating and social media platforms to gather military intelligence.

Ukrainian operatives have reportedly set up fake profiles on apps like Tinder to entrap Russian soldiers into revealing sensitive information. One Ukrainian woman, using several Tinder profiles, managed to contact 70 Russian soldiers, collecting valuable intel, including their locations, which was then passed on to Ukrainian intelligence for coordinated strikes, bfbs Forces News reports.

This strategy is part of a broader use of social media in the conflict, with the war being dubbed the "Tik Tok War" due to the prevalence of such platforms. Ukrainian hackers have also employed the messaging app Telegram to lure Russian soldiers into sharing off-duty photos, unwittingly revealing the locations of their bases. These bases were subsequently targeted and destroyed by Ukrainian forces.

According to a report from the Henry Jackson Society, an estimated 260,000 Ukrainians used the government app E-Enemy to report Russian troop movements in the first month of the invasion. This app allowed civilians to provide real-time information on invader movements, which was passed on to the Ukrainian military for tactical planning.

Beyond Ukrainian efforts, reports suggest that Western intelligence agencies, such as MI6, tracked Russian troops through the LGBTQ dating app Grindr, despite its ban in Russia. In another incident, the exercise app Strava was allegedly used to pinpoint the location of Russian submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky, who was assassinated in Krasnodar during a jog.

Russia has employed similar tactics, with its Federal Security Service (FSB) using social media to gather intel. In one case, a Ukrainian man was reportedly enticed by a Russian woman into taking covert pictures of a Ukrainian military base. In another instance, Russia used hacked communications from the Signal app to locate Ukrainian troops, leading to a missile strike that killed 30 Ukrainian soldiers.